198 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
levee system has made it necessary to raise the levees at New Orleans 
to provide for the increase in the height of the water. 
Professor Moore resumed reading: 
“Tt has predicted within a fraction of a foot the height the river would reach at 
various points, and been very close to the date of maximum high water. * * * 
“The day that the high water would reach New Orleans was stated with remarkable 
accuracy, for it was between three and four weeks after this warning that the wave 
crest reached here.’’ 
We can estimate on New Orleans about three weeks ahead. 
“That the warning had a good effect, like that of an approaching freeze, none can 
doubt. It let the levee boards, planters, and public generally know what to expect 
in the way of high water and warned them to prepare accordingly; and they did 
prepare, raising the levees to the height sufficient to withstand the flood which the 
Weather Bureau warned us was coming. In this way, therefore, it contributed not 
a little to the energetic and generally successful campaign against the flood carried 
on this year.” ’ 
The importance of the river service to the transportation interests of the Ohio 
River has been dwelt upon at various times. It is only necessary now to say that 
upon the efficiency of the one largely depends the prosperity of the other, and that 
the Weather Bureau has contributed much to the latter by maintaining in its river 
forecasts a high degree of accuracy, both during flood and the almost equally impor- 
tant low-water periods. These remarks apply with equal force to the remaining 
river districts, where very successful work has been somewhat overshadowed by the 
floods in the three great interior rivers. 
The best recommendation that can be given work of this character is a demand 
for the broadening of its field of operations and the extension of its benefits to local- 
ities not yet favored. Such demands have been constant and persistent, yet lack of 
- the necessary funds has rendered it impossible to meet more than a small percent- 
age of them. In several instances the limitations placed upon the work by lack of 
funds have seriously handicapped its efficiency and thereby caused loss of lives and 
property that might otherwise have been saved. 
I would like to have you listen to this report on the flood service: 
The recent flood in the Kansas River was an unfortunate, yet none the less instruc- 
tive, case. Had the Weather Bureau been able to maintain an adequate river service 
over this district it is practically certain that more accurate forecasts of the coming 
flood could have been issued and many lives and much valuable property saved asa 
result thereof. 
It has been found to be practically impossible in recent years to obtain even mod- 
erately accurate estimates of the property saved through flood warnings. Formerly 
the warnings, owing to their very general nature, did not command the attention 
that the later and more specific ones compel, and interests were easily centered upon 
any marked benefits. But in these days the many and diverse interests that are 
more or less concerned with river stages have come to look upon the river forecasts 
of the Weather Bureau, both daily and special, as a legitimate and necessary portion 
of their business, an always available, if not a tangible, asset. It is impossible to 
make a record in dollars and cents of the benefits derived. However, general 
estimates can be made. 
Mr. Grarr. Can you tell me what aid, if any, was rendered to the 
East St. Louis people? 
Professor Moors. I will come to that in a minute. 
The great floods of the year were those of the Red River in November and December, 
the Ohio and lower Mississippi in March and April, and the lower Missouri and upper, 
Mississippi and their tributaries in May and June. The first overflowed a territory 
in southwestern Arkansas and northwestern Louisiana approximating 200 square 
miles in extent, and the property loss amounted to over $500,000. This flood began 
about November 26 and continued throughout the following month. On Novem- 
ber 23 the central office at Washington advised that ‘‘all necessary precautions should 
be taken for the removal of stock and property liable to be damaged by flood.” 
These warnings were thereafter repeated daily, gradually becoming more specific as 
to time and height of the crest stage expected, until all danger had passed. The 
- warnings were issued from seven to fourteen days in advance of the floods, and the 
crest stages in various localities were correctly forecast to within a small fraction of 
